The bean in the roscón (A1)
On 5 January Nerea wants a sweet from Baltasar at the parade. The next morning she and Raúl both want the paper crown. An A1 story.
El haba del roscón
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About this article
What you'll learn
Present tense for Reyes: cabalgata, roscón, la figura and la haba.
On 5 January Nerea wants a sweet from Baltasar's float and catches one in her hood. On 6 January there is no school. She and Raúl both want the paper crown from the roscón. Her piece has the small figure. His has the dried bean, so he pays Elena, who bought the cake.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
Los Reyes Magos son Melchor, Gaspar y Baltasar
newthe Three Kings are Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar
Reyes Magos is the Spanish name for the three kings of the Christmas story. In Spain they are always Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, in that order.
Every Spanish child knows the three names, so they come up in any conversation about January.
Ellos son personajes muy importantes en la Navidad española
newthey are very important figures in the Spanish Christmas
Muy importantes is plural because personajes is plural: a Spanish adjective copies the number of its noun. Española is feminine singular because it goes with Navidad.
Un personaje is a character or figure in a story or a tradition, not a personality.
El cinco de enero por la tarde hay una fiesta muy especial
newon the afternoon of the fifth of January there is a very special celebration
Spanish gives dates as el + number + de + month, with no ordinal: el cinco de enero, never el quinto. Por la tarde covers midday to dusk.
Dates and parts of the day come up in every conversation about a holiday.
los niños tienen mucha emoción
newthe children are very excited
Spanish says tener emoción, literally to have excitement, where English uses to be plus an adjective. The same pattern gives tener hambre, tener frío and tener miedo.
Mucha is feminine here because emoción is feminine, so the quantity word agrees too.
Ponen zanahorias y agua para los camellos
newthey put out carrots and water for the camels
Poner means to put or to place: pongo, pones, pone, ponemos, ponen. Para marks who something is meant for: para los camellos.
Spanish children leave food for the camels the way children elsewhere leave a snack for reindeer.
Es una de las fiestas más bonitas del año
newit is one of the most beautiful holidays of the year
Una de las + plural noun + más + adjective is how Spanish says one of the most. The adjective stays plural because it agrees with fiestas.
A ready-made frame for any opinion: una de las ciudades más bonitas, uno de los libros más famosos.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Cabalgata
cabalgata
procession, parade
Una cabalgata is a procession through the streets. The word comes from caballo, horse, because people once rode in it; today the Kings ride camels and floats.
La Cabalgata de Reyes on 5 January is the biggest street event of the Spanish Christmas.
Carrozas
carrozas
parade floats
Una carroza is a decorated float in a procession. The same word also means a horse-drawn carriage. The singular is la carroza.
Each of the three Kings rides on his own carroza.
Caramelos
caramelos
sweets, candies
Un caramelo is a small sweet, usually wrapped. It is a false friend: English caramel is a specific kind of burnt sugar, while in Spain un caramelo is any sweet at all.
Tirar caramelos, throwing sweets to the crowd, is the part of the cabalgata children wait for.
Zanahorias
zanahorias
carrots
La zanahoria is a carrot; the plural is las zanahorias. The h in the middle is silent, as every h is in Spanish.
Children leave them out for the camels, the Spanish version of a carrot for a reindeer.
Carbón dulce
carbón dulce
sweet coal
El carbón is coal. Carbón dulce is a hard black sugar candy made to look like it, and it is what children who behaved badly find in their shoes.
The joke only works if you know that carbón means coal, not carbon.
Roscón de Reyes
Roscón de Reyes
the Kings' ring cake
El roscón is a big ring-shaped sweet bread with candied fruit on top. Rosca means a ring, and the ending -ón makes it big.
It is eaten on 6 January, with a small figure and a dry bean hidden inside it.
Camellos
camellos
camels
El camello is a camel, the animal the Kings arrive on. Montar en camello, montar en bicicleta: montar en names the animal or vehicle you ride.
The camels are the reason children leave out water and carrots the night before.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Reflexive verbs: se despiertan
Se despiertan temprano por la mañana
they wake up early in the morning
Despertarse carries the pronoun se: me despierto, te despiertas, se despierta, nos despertamos, se despiertan. The stem also changes, e to ie, in every form except nosotros.
Without the pronoun, despertar means to wake somebody else up, so se changes the meaning.
Fueron: the past of ser
Si fueron buenos, reciben juguetes y dulces
if they were good, they get toys and sweets
Fueron is the third person plural past of ser: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron. Ser and ir share this same past, so fueron can also mean they went.
Si + past, then present, is a normal Spanish pattern: the condition is finished, the result is now.
Trajeron: the past of traer
trajeron regalos al niño Jesús
they brought gifts to the baby Jesus
Traer, to bring, has an irregular past built on the stem traj-: traje, trajiste, trajo, trajimos, trajeron. Note trajeron, with no i.
Al is a + el, a contraction Spanish always makes: al niño, never a el niño.
Superlative: el + noun + más
el día más importante para los niños españoles
the most important day for Spanish children
The superlative is el/la + noun + más + adjective: el día más importante. Both the article and the adjective agree with the noun.
The text uses the same frame again in una de las fiestas más bonitas del año.
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